2 plead guilty in Southeast Georgia drug-smuggling case

WAYCROSS | Two men charged with conspiring to smuggle drugs into Southeast Georgia entered guilty pleas Friday in U.S. District Court.

Harold Lee Ragland, 47, of Hoboken, pleaded guilty to two counts, one from each of two indictments, while Jimmy Lott, 62, of the Ambrose community in Coffee County, pleaded guilty to a single count. Both men are charged with Gerald “Geral’’ Roberson of Brantley County, Harli E. Perritt, 19, of Blackshear, and Decia Roberson, 45, of Waycross, with conspiring to possess and sell large quantities of marijuana, cocaine and prescription drugs.

That indictment came down in July. In August, Ragland and Roberson were indicted a second time on four counts of using the mail and one count of using a phone to collect insurance on houses and vehicles they had purposely burned.

Ragland pleaded guilty Friday to the drug conspiracy charge and one count of wire fraud while Lott pleaded guilty to wire fraud for using a phone to obtain drugs from Roberson. Both phone calls were made May 14 as agents listened in on a court-approved wiretap, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Robert Livingston testified Friday.

Livingston testified that investigators learned of the insurance fraud as they looked into allegations that Ragland and Roberson had trucked in drugs from Florida and Texas. The indictment says the drug transports began in 2012 and lasted until May of this year.

The witnesses said they saw items being removed from houses shortly before they burned and that residents had been told to get their belongings out of houses that burned a short time later, Livingston said.

In one case, Roberson and Ragland took 50 pounds of methamphetamine to Monteagle, Tenn., for some Mexican clients, unloaded the meth and burned the truck, Livingston said.

They then reported the loss of the truck and collected insurance on it, he said.

When agents conducted a search warrant on the defendants’ property in Brantley County, they found a trailer loaded with items that Ragland had claimed as losses in a fire, Livingston said.

“One item we seized was a mounted pheasant being chased by a fox,’’ he said.

In exchange for his guilty plea on the two charges, the government agreed to dismiss the other charges in the two indictments that include distributing drugs and the other mail and wire fraud counts.

Wood told Ragland that the maximum penalties are 20 years in prison and three years of probation on each of the charges. The maximum fines are $1 million for the conspiracy charge and $250,000 for the wire fraud charge, she said.

In Lott’s case, the government will drop the conspiracy charge and the possession of drugs with intent to distribute them charge in exchange for his guilty plea.

Government agents, who were listening in on the conversation, followed Lott to Douglas and arrested him in a traffic stop, Livingston said.

From that moment on, Lott had cooperated in the investigation and assisted the agents, Livingston testified.

“He did a recorded phone call for us,’’ and told agents that some of the pills were to have gone to his ailing brother, Livingston said.

Lott agreed with all that Livingston said especially his obtaining of painkillers for his brother.

“That was the main thing I was after,’’ he told Wood, “the methadone especially.”

Lott was very talkative throughout the hearing. As Wood asked Lott questions to determine whether he understood the proceedings against him, Lott said, “I’m pretty level-headed except the day I got caught.”

Wood told him the maximum penalty she could impose is four years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years on probation.

She allowed Lott to remain free on bail, but Ragland remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service as he has been since his arrest.